Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2019 Jun 18:12:1179547619855388.
doi: 10.1177/1179547619855388. eCollection 2019.

Bilateral Transient Myopia with Sulfasalazine Treatment

Tal Paz  1 , Daniel Rappoport  1   2 , Assaf Hilely  1 , Hana Leiba  1   2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Bilateral Transient Myopia with Sulfasalazine Treatment

Tal Paz et al. Clin Med Insights Case Rep. .

Abstract

Purpose: Several case reports of transient drug-induced myopia have been reported, mainly due to sulfa drugs. We present a case of a sudden and significant increase in myopia associated with initiation of Sulfasalazine for long-standing ulcerative colitis in an adult Caucasian female.

Case report: Our patient presented to the emergency room with acute bilateral visual loss. Ocular examination was normal, except for myopia of -4 Diopters (D) in both eyes (BE). The patient was advised to stop the medication, and her vision improved within 4 days to best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of 6/7.5 with a refractive correction of -0.75 D in her right eye (RE) and BCVA of 6/6 with a refractive correction of -0.50 D in her left eye (LE).

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the second reported case of transient Sulfasalazine-induced myopia.

Keywords: Sulfasalazine; acute myopia; ciliary body edema; drug-induced myopia; transient.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests:The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Ultra-biomicroscopy (UBM) image of a patient with drug-induced angle closure. The iris is pressed against the anterior chamber angle and the ciliary body is rotated anteriorly. The uveoscleral effusion seen here is typical of the idiosyncratic mechanism of adverse reactions that precipitate acute transient myopia and angle closure.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Ultra-biomicroscopy (UBM) images of our patient 4 days after Sulfasalazine cessation, showing normal anatomy in both eyes.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kaimbo DKW. Transient drug-induced myopia. SAJ Case Rep. 2014;1:105.
    1. Panday VA, Rhee DJ. Review of sulfonamide-induced acute myopia and acute bilateral angle-closure glaucoma. Compr Ophthalmol Update. 2007;8:271–276. - PubMed
    1. Subak-Sharpe I, Low S. Pharmacological and environmental factors in primary angle-closure glaucoma. Br Med Bull. 2010;93:125–143. - PubMed
    1. Peponis V, Kyttaris VC, Chalkiadakis SE, Bonovas S, Sitaras NM. Ocular side effects of anti-rheumatic medications: what a rheumatologist should know. Lupus. 2010;19:675–682. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gubbay SS. The occurrence of drug-induced myopia as a transient side effect of topiramate. Epilepsia. 1998;39:451. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources